The guest is James Steele, co-author with Donald Barlett of the THE BETRAYAL OF THE AMERICAN DREAM. The New York Times calls the book "a fiercely-reported indictment of how the American middle class has been condemned to terminal decline, from the authors of America: What Went Wrong."

In 2012, the Arctic Sea Ice hit a stunning new record low. Rutgers scientist Jennifer Francis explains how this changes weather for billions of people in the Northern Hemisphere. Plus the Director of the Snow and Ice Data Center, Mark Serreze on record and what it means, and analysis from polar scientist Jennifer Bitz, U of Washington. In depth, direct from top scientists.

The guest is investigative journalist Greg Palast, who reports for the BBC and The Guardian among others. Host Don Merrill speaks with Greg about his new book Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps. They'll also preview Greg's talk at a benefit for KBOO tonight (9/26) at the Clinton Street Theater.

Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Armed Madhouse. He is best known in the US for uncovering Katherine Harris' purge of black voters from Florida's voter rolls in 2000. Palast's last book is Vultures' Picnic.

Host Kathleen Stephenson speaks with Mary Kyle McCurdy, Policy Director and Staff Attorney with 1000 Friends of Oregon and Cherry Amabisca of Save Helvetia, a coalition of farmers, business owners, concerned citizens, neighbors, and residents of the greater Helvetia area who are working to protect the Helvetia community and its neighboring agricultural lands.

1000 Friends of Oregon is challenging Metro’s urban and rural reserves plan. The plan, designating over 28,000 acres as future urban land, was recently approved by the Land Conservation and Development Commission, bringing 1000 Friends to petition the Oregon Court of Appeals for judicial review on behalf of several local farmers.

Host Tessie Word speaks with economic sociologist Kevin Delaney about his book Money at Work: On the Job with Priests, Poker Players, and Hedge Fund Traders. Delaney is interested in complex social and political issues that have a central economic component. They'll talk about how people in particular professions that have money as a central feature of their jobs (like hedge fund traders, fund raisers, debt counselors, poker players and religious clergy) learn to think about money within their professional training and day-to-day work lives.

KBOO's Jenka Soderberg speaks with economic analyst Pratap Chatterjee about recent revelations that the world's interest rates have been severely manipulated by bankers who have profited from that manipulation.

Then, KBOO news intern Maria Mains speaks with Larry Hildus, the lawyer for Portland activist Dennison Williams, who has been targeted to appear before a grand jury in Seattle. A hearing scheduled for August 30th was postponed, and Portland area activists have planned solidarity actions to support the two people who may face jail time for refusing to testify before the grand jury.

Portland City Council will take public testimony September 6th on adding fluoride to drinking water and are expected to vote soon after.

Voices on this show are: Kimberly Kaminski, Executive Director of Oregon Citizens for Safe Drinking Water claims that three council votes are pledged before any public input and before recent scientific research is digested by the public health community.

Dr Gary Oxman, Multnomah County Health Officer largely sings the praises of fluoridation and acknowledges the new Harvard study showing higher concentrations of fluoride leading to lower IQs. He also explains public health as a holistic practice and would consider any added stress to the community as a negative health impact of fluoridating water.

Host Will Seaman speaks with Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies about the upcoming 8th anniversary of the war in Iraq, the continuing occupation of Iraq, President Barack Obama's foreign policy and the uprisings in Middle Eastern countries.

Fellow Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at IPS. She is also a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. She has been a writer, analyst, and activist on Middle East and UN issues for many years. In 2001 she helped found and remains on the steering committee of the U.S. Campaign to End Israeli Occupation. She works closely with the United for Peace and Justice anti-war coalition, co-chairs the UN-based International Coordinating Network on Palestine, and since 2002 has played an active role in the growing global peace movement. She continues to serve as an adviser to several top UN officials on Middle East and UN democratization issues.

State Bank of Oregon Community Forum

A public forum on the Oregon State Bank and a proposal to create a publicly owned bank modeled after the highly successful Bank of North Dakota was held on February 1st.

Forum speakers were Barbara Dudley, Co-Chair of the Oregon Working Families Party; Jim Houser, Co-owner of the Hawthorne Auto Clinic and Co-Chair of the Main Street Aliiance of Oregon; Teresa Retzlaff, Farmer at 46 North Farm in Astoria and member of Friends of Family Farmers; and State Representative Jefferson Smith.

Only North Dakota has a state bank. At the moment, a State Bank of Oregon is only an idea.

North Dakota's state bank was formed in 1919. When Alaska and Hawaii joined the union, they did not have a state bank - and still do not (as with the rest of the 47 states).

Recording: Oregon State Bank: Putting our money to work for us

Public Forum, February 1, 2011 at New Song Community Church, NE Portland

The guest is David Lively, Marketing Director of the Organically Grown Company in Eugene. He will talk about the Organicology conference going on in Portland this week and about current issues in the organic foods movement including the controversial "coexistence” deal between some organic companies and big-time genetically engineered company Monsanto and USDA secretary Tom Vilsack.

David Lively became involved in organic agriculture after becoming convinced that the best place to affect social change was in the dirt - and at farm level - and dropping out of social work school. He moved to Oregon and became a partner in Thistle Organics and later created a joint venture with Riverbrook Cooperative, Thistle-Brook, that was the largest fresh-market organic farm in Oregon at that time.
In 1984, he became an employee of OGC and in the 21 years since, he has served as warehouser, field manager, production coordinator, buyer, account representative and marketing director.
He has also served as a certification inspector, a member of the steering committees for the Alliance of Organic Certifiers, Organically Grown in Oregon and the Tri-State Symposium on Sustainable Agriculture, and on the boards of OGC, Oregon Tilth and by Governor Robert's appointment the Center for Applied Agricultural Research.

Host Jay Thiemeyer speaks with Dr. Margaret Flowers. congressional fellow for the 18,000-member Physicians for a National Health Program, about a single-payer health care program.

She will be one of the speakers at the Single Payer Health Care: State Wide Conference on Saturday, January 29th at the First Unitarian Church 1211 SW Main Street Portland, OR

National and local speakers, including:
• U.S. Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), Author of HR 676, The National Single Payer Bill
• Dr. Margaret Flowers, Maryland Pediatrician & Congressional Fellow, Physicians for a National Health Program
• Katie Robbins, Healthcare-NOW! national single payer advocacy group
• Mark Dudzic, Labor Campaign for Single Payer national organizer

Host Kathleen Stephenson speaks with Helena Norberg-Hodge about her new film "The Economics of Happiness," a documentary about the devastating effects of globalization and the need for localization. Norberg-Hodge will be in Portland this Friday for a special screening and discussion of the film. The event is this Friday, January 21st, 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm at the Main Street Sanctuary, First Unitarian Church, Portland, 1011
SW 12th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97205.

Helena Norberg-Hodge is an internationally renowned environmentalist and a pioneer of the localisation movement. She is a leading critic of conventional notions of growth and development. She is the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the alternative Nobel Prize. She is founder and director of
the International Society for Ecology and Culture and author of "Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh."

Daniel Lerch is the author of Post Carbon Cities (2007), the first major municipal guidebook on peak oil and global warming, and the lead editor of The Post Carbon Reader (2010), a collection of original essays by some of the world's most provocative thinkers on the 21st century's interconnected sustainability crises. One of the few experts specializing in local government responses to global fossil fuel depletion, Daniel has delivered presentations and workshops to elected officials, planners, and other audiences across the United States, as well as in Canada, Ireland, the UK, and Spain. He has been interviewed in numerous radio, video, and print outlets, and has been quoted in major publications including The New York Times and Business Week.

Daniel has worked with urban sustainability and planning issues for nearly fifteen years in the public, private and non-profit sectors. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies from Rutgers University in New Jersey and a Master of Urban Studies from Portland State University in Oregon.

Paul Pierson, co-author of Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, was in Portland at the end of November and spoke with host Stephanie Potter. In an innovative historical departure Pierson and his co-author, Jacob Hacker, trace the rise of the winner-take-all economy back to the late 1970' when big business and conservative idealogues organized themselves to undo the regulations and progressive ta policies that had helped ensure a fair distribution of economic rewards. Deregulation got underway, taxes were cut for the wealthiest, and business decimated labor in Washington. By showing how our political system has been hijacked by the superrich, Pierson and Hacker point the way to rebuilding a democracy that serves the many, rather than just the wealthy few.

Political Perspectives presents a talk by Sister Helen Prejean who spoke in Portland on October 21st of this year at the First United Methodist Church in support of Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty ( www.oadp.org ). She is introduced by Nasseem Raka, author of The Crying Tree.

Host Marianne Barisonek interviews David Swanson about his new book War Is A Lie, in which he exposes the reality of why the U.S. is constantly at war. He addresses the web of lies, the taboo subjects, the false claims, and the mythic messages and lays waste to them. Your phone calls are welcome.

Die German Stunde talks about immigration to Portland -- old v. new. The German American Society is having trouble reconciling immigrants who came in the 50s and 60s with newer arrivals. Other ethnic communities are facing similar dilemmas. Guests: Sascha Siekmann from the German American Society, Mahnaz Milani from the Iranian Community, Andrea Bartoloni, Italy's Vice Consul here in Portland and KBOO's very own Lucia Galizia, host of KBOO's Italian Hour.

Comments

Please ask Mr. Naito if his love of democracy extends to his business. Would he be willing to turn his development firm into a employee run cooperative corporation, giving ownership and organizational rights to employees. Mr. Naito's concern for democracy probably ends at doors to his corporation. Mr. Naito looks at this battle to develop the Hood River riverfront property as a public realtions battle. He will promise the community jobs and the city council financial support, and the council will eye the property tax revenue as a benefit to the community. If he is successful, once again we will be selling our responsibility to the land and the river for a short term gain. Mr. Naito cares little for the community, but operates on greed. If the environmental laws and regulations were not in place he would not be concerned at all with the impact of his development on the river, the wild life, and the ability of people to enjoy what nature have given us for free.

Bravo for having this debate, though. And controlling the civility of the debate.